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Scientists In Training

Marc Valero/Highlands Today

From left: Memorial Elementary School fifth-grader Jordan Austin and his mother Davida check one of the student science projects at Tuesday's Advanced Academics fifth-grade Science Fair at the Bert J. Harris Agricultural Center.

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By MARC VALERO

Highlands Today

Published: December 11, 2008

SEBRING - The Advanced Academics fifth-graders had many questions - about salt and metals, fruit DNA, ice cubes, plants and vapor, bouncing basketballs and more.

They used their ingenuity and the scientific method to answer those questions for their science projects that were on display for parents and their fellow students Tuesday at the Bert J. Harris Jr. Agricultural Center.

Cracker Trail Elementary fifth-grader Kevin Miners discovered that among the metals aluminum, copper, brass and steel that steel changed the most when placed in salt water.

"I was looking at projects over the Internet and this one just looked really cool," he said.

Daily photographs documented the salt water's effects over a five-day period.

"I did three citations so it took me about three weeks to do it," Miners said as he pointed out his photos and documentation.

Kevin's mother, Melissa, said the student projects are "amazing" and that she learned some things.

"I think that these kids are amazingly intelligent and very creative," she said.

District K-12 science resource teacher Dorothea Strickland commented on the good turnout at the agricultural center.

"What I find exciting is they bring the whole family so it's the siblings, the grandparents ... I told them, like the old saying, it takes a village to raise a child, well that involvement is needed in education," she said.

This was the third year for the Heartland Advanced Academics Rising Together Fifth-Grade Science Fair.

Advanced Academics fifth-graders at the district's nine elementary schools created a total of 230 science projects. After preliminary judging, five projects from each school (10 from Cracker Trail Elementary, which has two advanced academics fifth-grade classes) were selected for display at the agricultural center.

After the final judging, the top three projects were selected from each class with the students receiving a medal for their accomplishment.

"It's a good opportunity for the students to be the scientists," Strickland said. "The excitement of the learning is what we really want to ignite in the classrooms."

Highlands Today reporter Marc Valero can be reached at 863-386-5826 or mvalero@highlandstoday.com

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